X Ales in the 1880's

Once I get started, it can be difficult to stop. That's my excuse for continuing with this series looking at X Ales in detail. Far too much detail, really.

We're now in the 1880's, a key period in the development of British beer, when brewers had been unshackled by the 1880 Free Mash Tun Act. Suddenly a whole range of new ingredients were allowed. I'd been hoping/expecting to find maize and rice and other shit like that. I didn't. But more about that in the next part about the grists. Here I'm limiting myself to looking at the beer specifications.

This lot are quite tricky to make sense out of. With gravities all over the shop. Different examples of Barclay Perkins X ranged from 1055º to 1064º. Not sure what that was about. Truman seem to have brewed their X Ale to two slightly different strengths, 1053º and 1059º. The two in the table were parti-gyled together. It's very confusing. Possibly they could be London and Country versions. The "L" in Whitbread's XL almost certainly stands for London.

What is clear, is the disappearance of most of the stronger London X Ales. There are only a couple of XX Ales in the table. The stronger ones - XXX and XXXX Ale - had completely disappeared. The strongest London Mild is Barclay Perkins XX Ale at 1078º. If you can remember back that far, you'll recall that in my table for the 1860's there was a Mild over 1090º. In the 1830's table there were many Milds over 1100º. Stronger Milds continued to disappear right up until WW I, by which time London brewers generally only brewed X Ale.

It's intriguing that outside London breweries continued to brew a range of different-strength Milds. At the same time, it's worth noting that the third Mild up from Tetley and William Younger were only about the same level as The X Ales of Barclay Perkins and Whitbread.

I can't see any pattern in the rate of attenuation. Both the London and provincial examples mostly fall in the range 65% to 75%.

As the sample contains beers with very different gravities, the fairest way to compare hopping rates is to look at pounds per quarter of malt. Ignoring the outliers in each set (Barclay's XX and Tetley's X3), the London beers have between 6.5 and 9 pounds, the provincial ones 4.25 to 9 pounds. The averages are 7.61 for London and 6.44 for the provinces. I think it's fair enough to say that London X Ales were a little more heavily hopped than their provincial cousins.

I love looking at boil times. If only to demonstrate what bollocks all that shit is about Scottish brewers boiling their first runnings down to syrup. Note that the two Scottish brewers, William Younger and Thomas Usher, did not have the longest boils. In fact only Fullers boiled for a shorter time than Usher and the longest boils by far were at Truman's Burton brewery.

This is good. There's a clear pattern in the fermentation temperatures. London brewers pitch slightly cooler and let their worts get warmer. To make it easy, I've put the averages into a table:

	Pitch	max
London	59.3º	71.4º
Provincial	60.6º	68.3º

Note that the two Scottish brewers are close to the provincial average in their fermentation temperatures. Disproving that other load of Scottish bollocks, the one about them fermenting at near lager temperatures. Not even close to being true.

Most of the fermentations, both London and provincial, took 7 or 8 days. Not much else I can say about that.

Next time we'll be looking at the grists of these beers.

London X Ales in the 1880's
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
4th May	1886	Barclay Perkins	X	Mild	1055.0	1010.0	5.96	81.87%	6.42	1.61	1.5	2			60º	72º	3 + 2
24th Jun	1886	Barclay Perkins	X	Mild	1064.0	1015.0	6.49	76.63%	8.00	1.97	2	2.5			60º	72º	3 + 3
3rd May	1887	Barclay Perkins	XX	Mild	1078.0	1024.9	7.02	68.04%	16.00	5.85	2				59º	70º	3 + 4
19th Oct	1886	Whitbread	X	Mild	1061.2	1015.8	6.01	74.21%	9.11	2.38		2			59º	º	8
12th Nov	1885	Whitbread	XL	Mild	1071.2	1020.8	6.67	70.82%	8.13	2.48	1.5	2			60º	º	7
19th May	1886	Truman	X Ale	Mild	1052.6				8.0	1.88	2	2	2.25	2.25	60.5º	º	8
19th May	1886	Truman	X Ale	Mild	1058.7				8.0	2.09	2	2	2.25	2.25	60.5º	º	8
23rd Apr	1887	Fuller	X	Mild	1054.6	1020.5	4.51	62.44%	6.64	1.63	1.5	1.75			58º	71º	12
23rd Apr	1887	Fuller	XX	Mild	1064.8	1023.3	5.50	64.10%	6.64	1.93	1.5	1.75			57º	72º	12
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/051 and LMA/4453/D/01/052.
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/584.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number B/THB/C/166.

Provincial X Ales in the 1880's
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
11th May	1888	Tetley	X	Mild	1046.0	1016.1	3.96	65.06%	4.31	0.69	2			65º	68º	8
11th May	1888	Tetley	X1	Mild	1053.7	1016.6	4.91	69.07%	5.31	1.02	2			63º	68º	8
14th May	1888	Tetley	X2	Mild	1063.2	1016.6	6.16	73.68%	8.40	2.02	3			65º	68º	9
13th Jun	1888	Tetley	X3	Mild	1071.2	1016.1	7.29	77.43%	12.00	3.57	3			63º	68º	8
22nd May	1885	William Younger	X	Mild	1048	1009	5.16	81.25%	5.29	0.99	2	2.5		60º	67º	6
24th May	1885	William Younger	XX	Mild	1056	1012	5.82	78.57%	6.19	1.53	2	2.5		60º	69º	7
1st June	1885	William Younger	XXX	Mild	1065	1021	5.82	67.69%	6.67	1.86	2	2.5		58º	67.5	6
9th Jan	1885	Thomas Usher	X	Mild	1050	1013	4.89	74.00%	9.00	2.00	1.5	2		58º	69.5º	6
18th Jan	1887	Truman (Burton)	A	Mild	1052.1	1012.2	5.28	76.60%	7.19	1.40	3	3	3	60º	68º	8
18th Jan	1887	Truman (Burton)	8	Mild	1054.0	1013.9	5.31	74.36%	7.19	1.45	3	3	3	60º	69º	8
8th Feb	1887	Truman (Burton)	7	Mild	1061.2	1016.6	5.90	72.85%	5.90	1.46	3	3	3	59º	68º	8
19th Jan	1887	Truman (Burton)	6	Mild	1066.5	1019.9	6.16	70.00%	6.64	1.95	3	3	3	57º	69º	8
8th Jan	1886	Hodgson	XX	Mild	1063.71				5.23	1.32				60º	69.5º
Sources:
Tetley brewing record held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds document number WYL756/44/ACC1903
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive document number WY/6/1/2/31
Thomas Usher brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive document number TU/6/1/1.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number B/THB/BUR/11.
Hodgson brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/08/253.

William Murray's beers in the 1920's

It's funny, fun, fun time. As I tell my kids when I'm about to make them do something really boring. Yes, I'm back on the tables. Even better, a table of Scottish beers.

My gob was well and truly smacked when I noticed just how many analyses I had of William Murray beers. So many, that I'll have to spread them over multiple posts. I'm not sure why I have quite so many. They weren't the largest of Scottish breweries. Or of Edinburgh brewers. But therein probably lies the key. They were located in Edinburgh and so feature heavily in the William Younger and Thomas Usher Gravity Books.

I'm coming to the conclusion that in the 1920's and 1930's Scottish brewers had moved almost totally away from Mild to Pale Ale. Like Irish brewing, Scottish brewing was out of phase with England in terms of styles. But, while Ireland was 50 years or so behind, Scotland was 30 or 40 ahead. It's a phenomenon that was repeated with Lager. Maybe we should keep our eyes on Scotland to get a preview of the next dominant style.

The gravities are typically Scottish, with most of the Pale Ales in the 1035º to 1040º band. Then with a couple of really strong ones of 1055º plus. The middle ground of the 1040º's, where most English Pale Ales hung around shuffling the change in their pockets, is unoccupied. Most of them look like post-WW II ordinary Bitters.

It wouldn't surprise me, having seen Maclay's brewing records, if that solitary Mild was just a coloured-up Pale Ale. It looks very similar to the 4d Pale Ale.

Once again we can observe the use of Heavy as a synonym for "Strong", rather than as a designator of a specific style. I know I've said it lots of times before. But I'm going to keep repeating it until it sinks in. While I'm about different uses of terms some morons think are etched in stone as specific styles, note also the use of 90/- for a moderate-strength bottled Pale Ale.

I'm disappointed that there's no Milk Stout in this set. It was one of Murray's specialities. Instead there's a sweetish-looking Oatmeal Stout. Even that has a decent attenuation of 64%. that's something else worth mentioning: the relatively high degree of attenuation of Murray's beers. Most are over 70% and some over 80%.

I'll leave you with the table itself.

William Murray beers in the 1920's
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Flavour
1923	Mild	Mild		pint	draught	1006	1037		4.03	83.78%
1922	PA	Pale Ale		pint	draught	1005	1037		4.17	86.49%
1923	Carbonated Beer	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1011.8	1035.2	27	3.03	66.48%
1924	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1011.1	1036.3	25	3.26	69.42%
1924	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	draught		1037.2
1924	Strong PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1013	1057		5.73	77.19%
1925	Strong Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1015	1059.5	25	5.79	74.79%
1925	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1010.5	1039.5	25	3.76	73.42%
1925	Strong PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1014	1060		5.99	76.67%
1925	Strong PA	Pale Ale	6d	half pint	bottled	1015	1060		5.86	75.00%
1926	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1010	1035	30	3.24	71.43%
1926	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1008	1034	20	3.37	76.47%
1926	PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1010	1035	20	3.24	71.43%
1927	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1007	1039		4.16	82.05%
1927	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1012	1035	25	2.97	65.71%
1928	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1009	1035	25	3.37	74.29%
1929	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1009	1038.5		3.83	76.62%
1929	90/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1007.25	1040		4.26	81.88%
1929	4d Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1011	1035.5		3.17	69.01%	Mawkish
1929	4d Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1011	1037		3.37	70.27%	Fair but thin. Not sweet.
1929	Export Strong Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1013.5	1056		5.53	75.89%
1929	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1008	1035.5	30
1929	Oatmeal Stout	Stout		pint	bottled	1016	1044		3.62	63.64%
1924	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint		1011.5	1060.3	25	6.37	80.93%
1925	Heavy Ale	Strong Ale	6d	half pint	bottled	1015	1079		8.40	81.01%
1928	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1027	1085	80	7.55	68.24%
1929	Export Strong Ale (carbonated)	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1013	1057		5.73	77.19%	Sweet & highly hopped.
1929	Heavy Ale (carbonated)	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1030	1087		7.40	65.52%	Pleasant. Very sweet.
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

Jubilee of Brewing at Craigmillar

What would I do without annual general meetings and the newspaper reports they generated? Do some proper research, that's what. The burrowing around in archives sort.

This report confirms what I've already said: Murray's was launched on a more sound financial footing than many other breweries. Even in the difficult times of the 1930's they were making a profit and declaring decent dividends. It just shows you that glamourous investments like Allsopp were often a far worse choice than more prosaic ones such as Murray.

"WILLIAM MURRAY & COMPANY, LIMITED
Jubilee of Brewing at Craigmillar
The annual general meeting of Messrs William Murray & Company, Limited, was held yesterday at Craigmillar. Mr C. H. Marshall S.S.C., chairman, said - "As the directors' report and accounts have been in your hands tor some time, I presume 1 may take them as read. We have reached the year when it is appropriate to review the history of the business which is now carried on under the name of William Murray & Company Limited. It is the jubilee year of the company and of the introduction of brewing Craigmillar, Edinburgh. Jubilees have been celebrated from the earliest times as days for rejoicing, and this is no exception. William Murray, the founder, belonged to a family of brewers who had brewed for generations at Ednam, in Roxburghshire. The destruction by fire of this brewery proved ultimately to be the starting-point for the development elsewhere of a brewery business which, in the environment of Ednam, no matter how much ability had been brought to bear upon the business there, could never have attained the same importance as another brewery established in a locality more favourably situated. Mr Murray must have recognised this, for, in place of re-erecting a brewery at Ednam, he decided to look around for a site which would furnish an unlimited supply of the best spring water, and also for industrial advantages which would further the development of a successful brewery business. The site he chose for the erection of his new brewery possessed all these, and in addition combined something more with which industrial conditions are not, as a rule associated, namely, a situation picturesque and romantic; to the north, Arthur's Seat, beneath whose shadows lie Duddingston Church and Loch; to the west the Metropolis, with its ancient Castle and numerous spires rising in the distance; and, towering in the south, Craigmillar Castle, with all its historical interest of bygone gaieties, tragedies, and memories.


The Situation,

"Almost midway between the historic landmarks of Craigmillar Castle and Duddingston Kirk, land which had remained undeveloped for hundreds years, the first brewery was erected, and was appropriately named Craigmillar Brewery. The selection of such a situation with such natural and industrial advantages is, I venture say, a great tribute to the business sagacity of the founder. For seven or eight years Craigmillar Brewery stood alone, but other brewers became attracted to the excellent quality of the brewing water, and seven breweries were ultimately erected within a comparatively small area. The number of buildings both industrial and residential has increased yearly, and we who are the successors of Murray may take pride in the fact that the establishment and development of this important industrial suburb of the Capital of Scotland owes its beginning to the erection, fifty years ago, of Craigmillar Brewery.

"In 1897 Mr Murray converted his business into limited liability company, and since then two brewery businesses have been purchased, and bottling stores have established in Glasgow and in Fife.


Outstanding Business Ability.

"Following Mr Murray, who retired 1922. Mr W. D. Hay became chairman and managing director of the company. I had the pleasure of knowing both Mr Murray and Mr W. D Hay for a long number of years. Long before I became a director of this company I was associated with them frequently in business transactions. Both were men of outstanding business ability and capacity, and what is perhaps more important, both were men of honour and integrity. It is a great pleasure to to testify to the work which they did to establish this company on the solid foundations on which it now stands, and it is a matter of regret that neither Mr Murray nor Mr Hay lived to see the jubilee of the company which they served so eminently and so well.


Improved Premises.

"Of the controversies regarding the liquor trade during the past fifty years I do not intend to speak. I should like, however, to touch upon one subject very briefly: the movement to improve licensed premises. It is a matter of great regret that every effort by the licensed trade to further this object has far received no encouragement — only opposition — from the official temperance societies. Until the licensing laws, as they at present stand on the Statute Book, are amended, it cannot be expected that the licensed trade will embark upon the large expenditure necessary to reconstruct present buildings or to build new premises as improved public-houses. So far however, as present legislation permits, we are helping in the construction of such houses, and our policy in this direction will be continued.


Most Satisfactory Figures.

"I turn now to the balance-sheet and profit and loss account for the past year. The figures, you will be pleased to observe, are the most satisfactory in the history of the company. This is gratifying in view of the present being the jubilee year of the company. It is proposed to place this year to the genera] reserve fund the sum of £5000, raising the general Reserve fund to £24,000. While the consumption of beer in Scotland has not shown the same marked increase during the past year as in England, there has been improvement. In view of this and the fact that your directors are of the opinion that provision has already been made for any ordinary contingency, they have resolved to pay a dividend at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum, less income tax, on Preference shares, and a final dividend on Ordinary shares at the rate of 10 per cent., less income tax, making a total dividend for the year at the rate of 15 per cent, per annum, less income tax, and to carry forward £16,921, subject to directors' fees, to next year."

Councillor John Hay, D.L., J.P., in seconding the adoption of the accounts, referred to the chairman's services during the past years, in which the company had made substantial progress. The appointment of Sir James Fraser Cunninghame, O.B.E., J.P., who was elected to the board during the year, was unanimously confirmed."
Evening Telegraph - Wednesday 09 December 1936, page 7.

I hadn't realised until now that the brewery had relocated so far. Ednam is a tiny village just outside Kelso and just two or three miles from the English border. Uprooting the business and moving it 50 miles to Edinburgh was a bold move. But one which obviously paid off. I can't imagine that the company could ever have become very large if it had remained located in the thinly-populated border region.

Checking in my trusty "A Century of British Brewers Plus", I see that the firm hadn't been in Ednam long, only having been founded in 1880, six years before the move to Duddingston. Sadly, the book doesn't say who the two brewery businesses were who Murray took over.

Like so many Scottish breweries, Murray disappeared in the frenzy of takeovers at the end of the 1950's and beginning of the 1960's. It was purchased by Northern Breweries, one of the forerunners of Bass Charrington, in 1960 and closed in 1963.

Just noticed how many analyses I have of Murray beers. I guess that will be next.

Cider, Health Beverage

How could I not reproduce an article with a title like that? I'm sure noy everyone today would agree, but the author has some compelling arguments.

One I used myself quite recently. "It's only apple juice, after all, Andrew." Cider is sort of apple juice. All the goodness couldn't have been lost in the making of it.

"CIDER, HEALTH BEVERAGE.
Sometimes wish that those who write about eider would drink a pood deal more of it, and then they might write with more knowledge, and certainly with more discretion. It is remarkable what an amount of ignorance prevails with regard to the products of a tree quite as old as the establishment Glastonbury Abbey, if believe in old traditions. Joseph of Arimathea, are told, when came to what is known as Glastonbury, leaned on his staff, which, his weight, went down in the soft, rich, yielding soil, and there took root, and in due time became the holy thorn. Whilst loaning on his staff, Joseph drew from his wallet eastern fruit and proceeded eat it. In doing so, he scattered the pips, and from these sprang up those apple trees that furnish the blood-red cider, no other county England producing the like. There is no doubt that the holy thorn grew in Glastonbury, and so do the apple trees. We know that good cider has been made, and is still being made, in Somerset, and I have seen many a good old labourer march off with his two-gallon bottle the morning and bring it back and set it down empty beside the cider house door in the evening; and be ready take his pail on lis head to milking o'clock next morning. Why he could do this was because it was pure cider, and not a concoction that he had drunk. Now, a town dweller gets knocked over because he has drunk five pints of cider. He is given twenty-one days in which to reflect, and at the same time cider gets bad name. If there is is one thing that I detest, it is to see drunken person, and, happily, we see fewer them today. We see hardly any in country districts and cider is still freely drunk there. I trust it will, for many year to come. I am no braggart, but I think that I have sampled cider made in most of, or from most of, the cidermaking countries of the globe, and I believe that my old friend, Mr John Ettle, of Weston-super-Mare, will bear out my statement that, once having tasted cider that was made in Germany, be it in time war or peace, never want to make its acquaintance again, whether at home or in Holland. I think that I have sampled most of the show ciders that have been exhibited in England during the past 15 years, and I have had to taste and sample and place in order merit as many as 184 bottles and casks day. If cider were so terribly intoxicating, what should I have been like at the finish ? The fact is, cider does no harm long as it in pure. Cider is not a teetotal beverage, though containing much less alcohol than so-called non-intoxicating beverages. Here open challenge. Let anyone obtain 20 bottles of ciders not more nor less than six weeks old; also 20 bottles of brewed stone-ginger beer of the same age from 20 different makers, and send them to the Bristol University for analysis. I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that the stone-ginger would show the greater quantity of alcohol, either by weight or volume. The regulations at the Bath and West of England, the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and the Brewers' Exhibition in London, require that cider shall shown pure, and the chemist either precedes or follows the judge. Now, in all the long years these competitions have been held, a first prize has never been awarded to cider showing 6 per cent, of alcohol. At the Royal champion honours have been to a cider containing under 2 per cent, of alcohol. It will generally be found that there have been more ciders shown containing 3 to 4 per cent, alcohol than any other figures. Thanks to modern investigations, the contents of cider are fairly well-known, particularly the solids, and when these and the amount of alcohol are out of recognised proportion, well, the judge begins to think of either added sugar or added spirit, or both.

"Chambers' Encyclopaedia" states that cider contains from 4 to 10 per cent absolute alcohol. I wish its able editor would only send me a few grafts of the apple that has a sufficiency of solids in the form of sugars, to convert into 10 per cent. of absolute alcohol in the cider, even if it was fermented to comply with the regulations of the dry class at the Bath and West. Few realise that cider is, or should be, the purest beverage on earth. The juices are drawn from the soil, filtered by passing the trunk of the tree and through the branches, refined and perfected by sunshine, the greatest purifier of all. The apple is then crushed, the liquids squeezed out from the coarser parts, skin, core, & c . The juice is then put a clean barrel. The yeasts that are on the skins of the apples are then set to break up the fruit sugars, and fermentation takes place. This goes on until sufficiency of alcohol has been developed to act as a preservative. As the alcohol becomes more pronounced, the yeasts become weaker, until they are killed off the very product they have developed. The resultant liquor is all that cider should be, needs to be. If bright-looking cider is required the filter may be used. This, of course, takes from, rather than adds. If water be used to dilute the beverage, all kinds of fakes are used to restore the body — sugar candy, burnt sugar, caramel, boiled parsnips, beet roots, even beef, gingerbread, and anatto, just, of course, for appearance sake. Then the cider so weakened that anti-ferments, or preservatives, are added. The Devonshire practice of matchng or sulphuring leaves its distinctive trace on the tongue. Then there is salicylic acid, and others more harmful, as, I have cause to remember when I was not quite so well experienced as to cause and effect as now. The cider-makmg industry is a most important one to west England farmers particularly, and this being so, I have endeavoured show that whilst cider cannot mask as a non-intoxicant, yet, on the other hand, with ordinary table consumption, it can hardly hardly be styled an intoxicant. Of course. to sit and empty couple of bottles at a sitting would be different from taking half a gallon into the hayfield. The latter might be more than excusable, even necessary. Apart from being a mere beverage. Cider has decided medicinal properties of great value.
Western Daily Press - Thursday 31 December 1914, page 3.

Drinking two gallons of cider during the day, but still able to get up before dawn to milk. They don't make farm labourers like they used to. Two gallons. Even if it were just 3 or 4% ABV, that's still a fair amount of booze to get through in a day. 

That's not such an appetising list of adulterants. Boiled parsnips?  I prefer mine roasted. Talking of which, I did some really nice ones on Sunday. Caramelised, but not quite burnt. Yummy. Wouldn't want them in my cider, though.

Did you notice the dig at the germans there? Saying how crap German cider was. Though, to give him his die, the author does seem to know a thing or two about cider.

Home brewing in WW I

Though I don't mean the type of home brewing in the modern sense. Domestic brewing is probably a better description of it. Where farmers or other large households brewed for their own consumption and those of their workers.

It had been very widespread in the 18th century, but gradually declined in the 19th century, due to a number of factors. The greatest probably that between 1830 and 1880 private brewers had to pay the full tax, as duty was levied on the raw materials. The only real economic advantage the domestic brewer had was being able to use ingredients banned in commercial brewing, such as raw grain.

The increasing gap between the quality of home-brewed and commercial beer was another important factor. There had been little difference in the equipment and techniques employed in a domestic brewery and a commercial one in the early 18th century. Technological advances, which had mostly passed the private brewer by, had given commercial brewers much greater control of the brewing process. Put simply, home-brewed beer could seldom match commercially-brewed beer in quality.

Commercially-brewed beer had also been relatively cheap before the outbreak of war. The increased excise duty changed that.

"HOME BREWED.
The "haapenny the haupint bexter" has filled the Essex and other East Coast peasantry with economic ideas, as how to circumvent such an outlay, to wash the hayseeds and the wheat and barley "hiles" from their throats. And this has taken the form of reverting to the old practice of brewing their ales, an excellent practice that the farmers will not condemn. The average home-brewed is made from malt and hops only, but that malt and hops are not so easily obtainable as they were a few years ago. I wonder how many calls would have to be made to Bristol a sack of malt and seven pounds of hops could be obtained. And then the smell and taste of sweet wort, the aromatic perfume of the hops in the old farmhouse copper, or as the liquor is set out to cool. The nine gallons of "stingo" that would prevent frostbite on a winter's morning, and the big barrel of small ale that got harder and harder as the summer drew on, until it veritably made one's eyes strike fire to drink it. A quart of West Countree "crab vergis" was mild as compared with it. Of late years this home-brewing has been a very declining industry. The popular taste has tended towards the lighter, more palatable non-deposit beers being produced by our modern brewers; but to have to pay eightpence duty on what has hitherto been sixpence per gallon harvest ale will certainly turn many a farmer's thought in the direction of his own mash-tub in non-cider-making counties. Happily, the practice of giving drinks at harvestide to agricultural workers is being replaced by extra money, a gain alike to the farmer and the labourer. And bearing this in mind, we shall not see the Excise increased to deal with the issue of licenses for brewing on the premises for home consumption only."
Western Daily Press - Thursday 31 December 1914, page 3.

The author points out the one big problem of starting to home brew again: getting hold of the materials. Difficult as it might have been in 1914, it would be completely impossible later in the war as brewing materials were rationed and allocated to brewers.

Note that this only applies to "non-cider-making counties". For the obvious reason that in cider-making counties cider still played the same role that beer once had in other parts of the country. And apples, unlike malt and hops, would always be obtainable.